Welsh rugby had something to sing about when the Millennium Stadium staged its first match in June 1999. Not only had the Millennium Commission helped redevelop one of the game’s spiritual homes into an iconic site with superb facilities – the national team then celebrated the dawn of the new era by beating South Africa for the very first time.

That famous victory has been followed by a whole series of national triumphs at the redeveloped Cardiff Arms Park, which sports the first fully-retractable roof in the UK.

Wales won the Six Nations Grand Slam by beating Ireland on the final day of the championship in 2005 and then beat France in another epic final day encounter three years later.

It’s not all about the rugby though – the Stadium hosted FA Cup Finals, League Cup Finals, Football League Play-off Finals and Challenge Cup Finals while Wembley was being rebuilt between 2001 and 2006. It is also set to act as a host venue on the London 2012 Olympics football competition.

“The venue has not only rung with the voices of the sporting faithful – it has also hosted an impressive array of stadium rockers”

The venue has not only rung with the voices of the sporting faithful, it has also posted an impressive array of stadium rockers since it opened, including U2, REM, The Rolling Stones, The Police and Madonna. Memorably, the Ryder Cup curtain raiser when the golf tournament came to Wales in 2010 featured home-grown talent such as Dame Shirley Bassey, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Katherine Jenkins.

• Building the stadium needed 40,000 tonnes of concrete and 12,000 tonnes of steel
• The Stadium includes 1,131 doors, 12 escalators, seven lifts and 15 public bars
• It required 20 shiploads of steel to build the retractable roof